The Emerald

Chapter 33 - Unmasked

"It's done." David told the Dealer as he entered the room, a huge smile on his face.

He hadn't thought that they would actually succeed in capturing anyone on the Arrow's team, much less the Arrow himself. David was excited that the plan had worked. They now had two vigilantes in the other room. Both were still out cold and they could do whatever they wanted with them, and even if they were conscious there would be nothing that either man would be able to do as they had ensured that the men's bonds were secure.

"Are either of them injured?" The Dealer asked as he spun in his chair to face David.

"No sir." David answered. "The gas knocked them out before they could injure themselves."

"Perfect. You are dismissed." The Dealer said as he turned back to the window behind him. "We will give them time to come around before we proceed."

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As Roy slowly started to wake from his drug induced sleep the first thing he was aware of was the pain from his still sore ribs and back. He took just a moment before opening his eyes to take in as much about his surroundings as he could. He knew that was what Oliver would tell him to do if he could. He focused first on keeping his breathing under control as something was making it difficult to breathe by putting more strain on his already bruised ribs and back. He thought back to Oliver's lesson on breathing for just a moment and focused solely on that.

When Roy had his breathing completely under control once more he moved his focus to see if he could feel any new injuries. Other than his back and ribs nothing else seemed to be in pain, therefore he was pretty sure he hadn't been injured during the time that he was out. Roy then focused on the rest of his body. He could feel something hard and cold around his wrists, even through the leather of his suit, and realized that he was shackled, to what he didn't know yet. As he focused more carefully he realized that he was hanging from something, probably a chain attached to the shackles on his wrist, as his arms were pulled above his head and his feet barely touched the ground. He still had on his full suit, mask included, and he was relieved at that realization. Although how long he would be allowed to remain in his full suit, and keep his identity hidden, he did not know.

After Roy had carefully taken in his immediate surroundings he then focused further out from himself. He only heard one other person breathing in the room and he couldn't help but wonder if it was Oliver. There was no sound from outside the room, no cars or trains, not even the sound of the rain that had just started to fall as he and Oliver had entered the warehouse. He realized that they were in a building with no direct access to the outside and he immediately wondered which warehouse in the Glades they were being held captive in this time.

Finally, after several minutes of taking inventory of his own injuries, observing his surroundings, and waiting to see if he could hear anyone else in the room Roy finally opened his eyes and looked around. He had to blink several times from the bright light that was in the room. Once his vision cleared he slowly looked around.

Oliver was still in his full Arrow gear and shackled to a metal chair that had been securely anchored to the ground just off to Roy's left. Roy noticed that someone had put a small tube just in front of Oliver's nose and thought it looked like the same kind of tube that people had in the hospital to give the patients oxygen. However, he didn't know what it was called as he had never cared to ask. He couldn't help but wonder what it was that they were making Oliver breathe.

After an agonizingly long minute Oliver lifted his head and looked at Roy. Clearly Oliver wasn't completely aware, however, Roy could see the unasked question in the older man's eyes and knew that, even though Oliver wasn't completely with it at the moment, his mentor was asking if he was okay. Roy gave a small nod of his head to indicate that he was alright and that Oliver shouldn't worry.